Clarissa Laurent Yee Qi Xuan, Desmond Lim Zong Wei, Phua Jun Yuan Ryan, Sherman Dang Xi Heng, Tan Zhi Wen Ivan
Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay
Many human-wildlife interactions in Singapore usually shows public ignorance in proper behavior and action when encountering wildlife. This conflict exemplifies a deeper problem of a lack of proper environmental education: people meet animals with improper behavior because of a lack of awareness of what they are, and how to deal with them.
At Ridge View Residential College (RVRC), which is located near a secondary forest, opportunities for human-wildlife conflict abound, making this problem more pertinent. Hence, our project aims to elevate the awareness of RVRC residents on what to do when an animal enters their living space and establish a college-wide Standard Operating Procedure for this.
Our initial survey findings highlighted that more than 75% of the respondents were not aware of how to safely manage an encounter with an animal visitor in their living area. Over 90% of respondents also indicated that they were interested in learning about the biodiversity in Kent Ridge and the protocols they should observe in these situations. Thus, we recommend providing an Animal Response Toolkit (ART) for RVRC, as the foundation for a new standard operating procedure. We propose holding workshops in conjunction with the ART, to better educate them on this knowledge. The workshops will be held in partnership with Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES). 2 such workshops had been conducted with promising outcomes.
Keywords: Ecosystems; Human-wildlife conflict; Workshops; Biodiversity; Natural Heritage; Built environment